The King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh is getting ready to open a stem cell bank harvested from the umbilical cord. The procedure will be done in laboratories and specially equipped rooms to draw the cells from umbilical cord blood and separate them using a special device.
Then they will be stored in labs for a period from 15 to 20 years after examining them and making sure they are free of contagious and genetic diseases. In addition, a team will be prepared for coordinating, marketing and research within this field.
Here’s a story about life that begins on the No. 2 toe — the one next to the big toe — on the right foot of Jasmina Anema. In early January, a red blip, the size of a bug bite, appeared. It got itchy, and she told her mom, Thea Anema.
“It looked like nothing,” the mother said. Then the foot started to swell. On the morning of Jan. 20, on their way to Jasmina’s kindergarten at Public School 141 in Greenwich Village, they stopped at the pediatrician’s office.
Researchers have discovered that umbilical cord stem cells, found in the blood of the umbilical cord, and able to differentiate into various types of tissue, represent a valid treatment alternative for leukemia patients that cannot find a compatible donor for a bone marrow transplant. American hematologists meeting in San Francisco for the 50th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Congress are now focusing their research on these types of stem cells to fight blood borne tumors.
An American study has recently called attention to the possible applications of umbilical cord stem cells for leukemia treatments. For years, Read More…
Many of us remain close to our siblings in adulthood, seeing each other through life’s ups and downs. But for Dr. Don Hicks, director of The Center for Church Relations and Church Health at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, and his brother Billy, the relationship couldn’t be closer – they share the same blood and the same immune system. That’s because Don donated his stem cells to his brother last year after discovering he was Billy’s only chance at surviving leukemia.
Billy, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., with his wife and three children (two in high school and one in college), Read More…
In a ray of hope for millions of leukaemia patients, American scientists have claimed to have developed a technique which multiplies the small number of stem cells in the donor blood, making it much more potent for the treatment of the fatal disease.
It also eliminates the need for a matching donor, whose bone marrow is usually transplanted to the patient, according to a study which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine. Traditionally, there was always a risk that the patient’s body may reject the new cells from a donor.
